Google Sues Apple for Patent Infringement

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The future of Silicon Valley, at least for now, seems mired in finger pointing over who owns what product features, and when.

Updated at 7:33 PM EDT on Monday, Aug 20, 2012

Google's Motorola Mobility unit is accusing Apple of infringing on seven of its technology patents and seeks a ban on U.S. imports of the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Google made the complaint to the U.S. International Trade Commission, saying that Apple violated patents for location reminders, email notifications and phone/video players, according to Bloomberg News. Although Motorola Mobility is making the claim, the unit was bought by Google in May.

The ban on Apple's imports would greatly hurt the tech giant because its products are all made in Asia, namely China. “We would like to settle these patent matters, but Apple’s unwillingness to work out a license leaves us little choice but to defend ourselves and our engineers’ innovations,” Motorola Mobility emailed Bloomberg News.

Motorola Mobility and Apple have been at odds for the last two years with no license agreements made.

Apple says Motorola is being unreasonable and it's copying their intellectual property. An Apple spokeswoman had no comment. Apple previously filed a complaint on patent infringement on Motorola Mobility back in March, but the case was thrown out. Apple, nonetheless, is appealing the case.

The Apple vs. Google fight has been brewing for a few years. Last week, we wrote about how Google is actually helping out Samsung's legal case against Apple. That's because if Samsung, which runs Android, lost the case it would be bad for Google's Android platform. Already we have seen how Apple is attempting to rid its iOS of all things Google, including Google Maps, YouTube and other properties. Google, on the other hand, is trying to infiltrate the iPhone and iPad with its Chrome browser.

Apple started this all by attempting to block Android manufacturers with its patent wars and now Google is attempting to fight back legally. Is this all worth it? No. Because in the $219 billion smartphone wars, if one chooses to call it that, the best device will win -- by beating out inferior products. Let's hope that both companies decide to put legal wrangling aside and work on creating a better platform and machines.